First Words from a Victorian Childhood Treasure

Among the most treasured periods of any bibliophile’s life is that in which we learn to read, when the entire world of possibility hidden in the written word suddenly unfolds before our eyes. Perhaps for this reason, childhood’s first books evoke tenderness and nostalgia far surpassing what we feel for works encountered later in life.

“The Golden Primer,” by Professor J. M. D. Meiklejohn, is just this sort of precious early-childhood text. First published in 1884, it is being re-released for the first time this month by the University of Chicago Press, and though it hails from another era, there’s no reason it can’t still inspire new readers today. Meiklejohn advocates methods for teaching literacy that are still in use, encouraging the nascent reader to interact with words on the page, point to them, count them, and incorporate them into phrases and rhyming verse.

The new edition reproduces the original text in facsimile alongside Walter Crane’s gorgeous Arts and Crafts-style illustrations. Amidst reports of the picture book’s decline, “The Golden Primer” offers a stunning reminder of the importance of artwork in helping a child learn to read. Below is a sampling of Crane’s sumptuous illustrations.

Walter Crane was one of the nineteenth century’s most influential nursery-book illustrators. He believed that a child’s imagination is stimulated by bright colors and symbolic images: “Children, like the ancient Egyptians, appear to see most things in profile, and like definite statements in design. They prefer well-defined forms and bright, frank color. They don’t want to bother about three dimensions. They can accept symbolic representations. They themselves employ drawing … as a kind of picture-writing, and eagerly follow a pictured story.”